TSA: Airport security finds loaded gun
in Cawthorn’s bag
Officials say a loaded gun was found in North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s carry-on bag at an airport security checkpoint. It’s the second time in a little more than a year that a weapon has been found in his possession at an airport in his home state. Transportation Security Administration spokesperson R. Carter Langston said that when Cawthorn went through a Charlotte Douglas International Airport checkpoint with the gun Tuesday morning, TSA officers notified Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police. Police say Cawthorn acknowledged that the gun was his and he was issued a citation for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property.
Harvard Creates fund to redress its
ties to slavery
Harvard University is committing $100 million to study and redress its ties to slavery, the university’s president, Lawrence S. Bacow, announced Tuesday. With the money, Harvard will create an endowed “Legacy of Slavery Fund” to continue researching and memorializing that history, working with descendants of Black and Native American people enslaved at Harvard, as well as their broader communities. A report released with Harvard’s announcement said that at its roots, the university, founded in 1636, owed its wealth to patrons whose fortunes were made on the backs of enslaved people, and whose names still festoon dormitories and other buildings that students walk in and out of every day.
New rules will end the century-long run of classic light bulbs
After lighting the nation’s homes and businesses for more than a century, transforming the design of buildings and even lengthening the average workday, incandescent light bulbs are finally on their way out. The Biden administration on Tuesday adopted two new rules that set stricter energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. Those standards would effectively phase out the sale of most new incandescent bulbs — the pear-shaped orbs with glowing wire centers — in 2023. Much of the country is already lit by LED lights, which the Department of Energy estimates last as much as 50 times as long as incandescent bulbs and use a fraction of the electricity.
Vice president is latest top official
to test positive
for COVID-19
Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday amid renewed concern about President Joe Biden’s potential exposure as the virus ripples through his administration. Harris received her test results shortly after returning to the White House following several days in California, then left the West Wing without seeing Biden to isolate at the vice president’s residence. While she typically sees the president most weekdays they are both in town, aides said she had not been with him in person in eight days. Two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Christopher Murphy of Connecticut, also tested positive Tuesday.
Biden pardons 3 and commutes sentences of 75, in first use
of clemency powers
President Joe Biden on Tuesday used his clemency powers for the first time to commute the sentences of 75 drug offenders and issue three pardons, including to the first Black Secret Service agent to work on a presidential detail, who had long maintained he had been wrongfully convicted. Abraham Bolden Sr., 87, was convicted of trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file, even after witnesses admitted to lying for the prosecution in his case. Bolden was in prison from 1966 to 1969. Biden’s top aides described the use of presidential power as part of a broader strategy to overhaul the criminal justice system.
US Marshals allies to furnish long-term military aid
to Ukraine
The United States marshaled 40 allies Tuesday to furnish Ukraine with long-term military aid in what could become a protracted battle against the Russian invasion, and Germany said it would send dozens of armored anti-aircraft vehicles. The announcement by Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and one of Russia’s most important Western trading partners, was among many signals pointing to further escalation in the war and disappointment for diplomacy. The increasing flow of Western weapons into Ukraine also amounted to another sign that a war Russian President Vladimir Putin had expected would divide his Western adversaries had instead drawn them closer together.
North Korea holds military parade with nuclear threat
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to expand his nuclear arsenal “at the fastest possible speed” and threatened to use it, as his government displayed an array of missiles and other weapons during a military parade Monday, the North’s state media said. With his defiant tone, Kim appeared to raise the stakes in the stalled international efforts to curtail his nuclear weapons ambition. North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat will probably be one of the most pressing diplomatic issues discussed during an expected meeting next month between President Joe Biden and South Korea’s president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol.
Russia cuts off major supply of natural gas to Poland
and Bulgaria
Infuriated by the West’s supply of arms and other support to help Ukraine resist invading Russian troops, Moscow on Tuesday took the fight to Europe’s economy, telling Poland and Bulgaria that it was halting supplies of natural gas, on which both countries and Europe in general are dependent. The decision to cut off gas supplies to two countries that are both members of NATO and the European Union marks the first time that Moscow has directly and openly targeted Europe with its energy weapon. Poland gets more than 45% of its gas from Russia, while Bulgaria gets around 90%.
By wire sources
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